Men were excited the most by short pieces of British soul: the silky soft voices of the soul-artists filled the men with passion. Estonian rock (33%), Lithuanian pop (67%) and German hiphop (76%) also increase the testosteron level and are the ideal sense-stimulation musical genres. Women, who are less conscious of the effect of their musical preference on their body, were most excited by spicy Spanish Latin.
What might have been most surprising was the fact that such short ‘shots’ of music can change our physiology and the fact that, in general, we’re bad at judging what biological effects different types of music have on us.
A few more (remarkable) results of Moxon’s research:
Music that people think relaxes them often has a completely different result: the body shows stress levels that aren’t picked up by the brain.
For example, music doesn’t have to be slow to relax a listening. What’s more, physiologically the most relaxing musical genres were the faster numbers of the Croatian pop (30%), Lithuanian poprock (36%) and Polish poprock (17%).
People are equally inept at determining which music stimulates them sexually. The Dutch schlager and German hiphop influence the testosterone levels of 75% of the participants who wound up in a romantic mood because of this. Most people, however, weren’t aware of the power of these musical genres.
Spanish Latin caused the most stress: the cortisol levels of 89% of the participants rose after listening to this genre.
Danish acoustic pop can make men more alert and lively, but oddly it has no effect on women. They need South-African rock to polish up their mood.
There was just one Sound Snack which had the same effect on both sexes: the old-fashioned, elated melody of the Belgian soul reduced the stress levels of both men and women and was relaxing for everyone.
The most remarkable physical effect was created by Croatian pop: for 100% of the participants the cortisol level was lowered and the amount of IgA rose. This means that this music relaxes listeners and increases their immune system at the same time.
Rumanian dance and Lithuanian R&B led to vast reductions in the level of IgA (respectively 67% and 100%), which means that they barely improve the immune system. A portion of Croatian pop, however, can be an excellent way to increase one’s sense of wellness.